Mercedes gets a lot of things right, but many wrong for sure. The wiring insulation for one, the hood’s insulation pad for another. The pad on my R129 SL600 had largely disintegrated leaving dust and chunks of foam all over the engine bay. Every time I lifted the hood to gaze at that magnificent V-12 the first thing noticed was the torn up pad. It was time for it to go. Here’s the parts I used to replace it:
…and the video: